We left Buena Vista, Colo 2 days again, headed west to Grand Junction. Leon wanted to visit another distillery. Oh, the scenery along the way!! We drove up to Leadville, 2 miles high (over 10,500 ft) and then down again through Glenwood Canyon. Oh my gosh, I was figuring even the Grand Canyon couldn’t be that beautiful. And to drive through it, that is much better than standing with a lot of tourist on the edge of a deep gorge. Much of Colorado is very high up. We were talking to a nice man in the morning and I was feeling a bit off – heart racing a little, out of breath, almost anxious. I suddenly realized it was the altitude. Leon said he was glad I said something about it as he was starting to feel a bit off too. As we climbed another pass, over 11,000 ft this time, I felt my breath shorter even more and my nose was almost swollen shut from the inside. Yet as soon as we descended, I was fine again. Thank goodness Grand Junction is only about a mile high like Denver.
We pulled into Palisade, where the distillery was. It has a bar outside as well as a tasting room. At first we saw a few rough looking characters, tatoos and all. But the tour was actually very nice and informative. We took some pictures and I tried a few of their spirits. The only thing I liked was the pear brandy. The rest is not for me. From there, we stopped right next door at a winery. That was more my style. After 5 tastes, I settled on a Tempranillo, a red wine in a Spanish style. We are having it for dinner tonight with a good steak.
We settled into the Koa at Grand Junction. A nice man came up to us and introduced himself as Greg from Nova Scotia. After a great dinner and a wonderful swim in the pool, I decided to get some ice cream. Of course the vanilla ice cream only came in a large tub, so I got the idea of asking Greg and his wife over for ice cream and Bailey’s. We sat for hours discussing our travels. They love to travel with their RV and a bike in a trailer. They’ve seen quite a lot of the US, especially Colorado. We had a wonderful evening that ended rather late for the neighbours, I’m afraid. This morning, Greg came over to see if he could find the solution to our electrical/power issue with the camper. We gave him our card and wished him a safe trip.
This morning, we got up late and headed to the Colorado National Monument. It’s basically a large group of canyons that you drive through over a couple of hours. I couldn’t stop taking pictures. They need little description, so just enjoy. I still wonder if the Grand Canyon will be as spectacular as what we’ve seen in Colorado so far.
Once we left the Monument, we headed towards Utah. At first, the state was dry and desolate. We could see something in the horizon that ended up being a rain storm. The wind was strong, so we stopped for a while to let the storm pass. After a few minutes, we continued our drive as we only had 50 kms to go before the turn off north to Provo. The wind and the rain were so strong that we developed a leak in the upper windows of the camper. I just sat with a towel on my shoulder until the dripping stopped. It’s odd because Leon just put a lot of caulking on those windows, but I think the strong winds might have been a factor.
The terrain changed often in Utah. We went from dry desert like, to coal mining mountains to green, deciduous trees on high altitudes. What a contrast! And how unexpected. We decided to stop in Provo for the night. We were quite looking forward to an early evening and a nice dinner when the camper refused to start as we were leaving the campground office. After much fiddling and with the help of the nice owner, we started up again and went directly to the Walmart to get some new connections for the battery. Hopefully this will do it, finally! Each day is certainly an adventure on the road.
Turning my world upside down! 